Right now most Americans aren’t pleased with Washington. Pundits and politicians joke about gridlock being an improvement over the anger that seems to dominate our nation’s capital.

Internationally, the outlook isn’t much better. It’s as if government has become a bad word instead of a synonym for progress.

That’s why the timing couldn’t be better for Benjamin R. Barber’s “If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities.” His manifesto — there isn’t a better word for it — makes the case that cities are the place where government is working creatively to improve the lives of residents. As an urban mayor, I could not agree more.

Barber, a political scientist at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is a vocal advocate for expanding the influence of city governments. He argues with gusto that they serve as the models for innovation, collaboration and effectiveness at a time when national governments are seen as floundering, or worse.

To highlight the importance of governing at the local level, Barber cites President Clinton’s address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention: “When times are tough and people are frustrated … the politics of constant conflict may be good. But what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation. Ask the mayors who are here … their purpose is to get something done.”

In other words, as has famously been said, there isn’t a Republican and Democratic way to pick up garbage or plow snow. If you’re a mayor, you better get it done correctly or there won’t be another term.

Barber goes further in his thesis: “Let cities, the most networked and interconnected of our political associations, defined above all by collaboration and pragmatism, by creativity and multiculture, do what states cannot. Let mayors rules the world,” he declares. No doubt this is hyperbole, but he is on point when it comes to running governments.

Without good ideas, there is no leadership. Without leadership, there are no good ideas. And cities are where both occur. It’s not an accident that urban populations are growing the fastes they have been in a generation. Barber believes this is happening because it’s where government works. Mayors have to perform.

He quotes a powerful point from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “The difference between my level of government and other levels of governments is that action takes place at the city level.” Those in Washington are “just unable to do anything while the mayors of this country still have to deal with the real world.”

There’s that term again: “real world.” Barber is intent to drive it home. He declares what he wants to do with his book is to “get something done.” He wants to move from ideology to problem-solving and “the city is the right subject today because hope has always been an urban currency and mayors have always in the first instance been optimists hoping to get something done.”

Cities, almost by definition, are meting pots where, as Barber notes, “participation and community are possible.” He believes mayors are pragmatists because they are results-oriented — they are focused on improving the lives of their constituents by providing services they need. This means mayors are optimists. Barber is right about that. Contrast the optimism at the local level with the pessimism too many see in Washington. Whom would you rather follow? And that is exactly what Barber is trying to convince his readers about.

Barber’s world-domination manifesto aside, “If Mayors Ruled the World” is an important book for New Jersey, at all levels of government. It should be required reading for our state’s 566 mayors.

Though Barber is focused on urban centers, many of his rules of management dealing with inequality, linking services with digital technology, diminishing crime and governing in a democracy, are important.

As an example, he writes about City Protocol, “whose aim is to define a global, cooperative framework … in areas such as sustainability, self-sufficiency, quality of life, competitiveness and citizen participation” using technology to develop solutions. The operative word is “solutions,” which is what mayors work for. That’s why cities are policy innovators on sustainability, workers’ rights, civil engagement, transportation and development.

In New Jersey, the League of Municipalities is invaluable in sharing best practices among our many local governments.

Barber is looking to set the bar higher, where local governments essentially do more than ever because of the failure of Washington to achieve much at all. It’s a goal worth moving toward. After all, as Barber writes, presidents pontificate principles; mayors pick up the garbage.